Saturday, September 21, 2013

After leaving Uganda, I spent a productive two weeks in Burundi. Here are the highlights.

Rema
Ministries

The
first week was spent in working
through ECLEA's foundational course on Biblical Stewardship with eight
of the leading staff members of Rema Ministries, in Bujumbura, the
capital of Burundi. Rema is an indigenous ministry in Burundi that, like
ECLEA, focuses on training church leaders. Frederic Harerimana, Rema's
deputy director,
serves as ECLEA's Burundi national coordinator. Consequently, Rema and
ECLEA have entered into a memorandum of understanding whereby Rema will
use its personnel and contacts to teach ECLEA's courses in Burundi and
to identify good candidates among those who participate at ECLEA
training sessions to become part of the ECLEA teaching team. I hope to
be able to go to Burundi twice each year and spend at least one week
each trip training the Rema staff people. Frederic is also drafting a
protocol for following-up with the church leaders after there has been a
training session. I am very encouraged by the level of organization, expertise, and commitment of Rema and think that ECLEA's work in Burundi is beginning on a good basis and, God willing, will bear much fruit.

Jonathan and the Rema Ministries team

MINEVAM

The
second week in Burundi was spent in the Bujumbura suburb of Gatumba
where we taught Biblical Stewardship to approximately 48 leaders of the
MINEVAM (Ministère International dEvangélistion en Afrique) denomination. MINEVAM is
headquartered in Burundi but also includes churches in a number of
other countries. Bishop Peter Barihzigo had requested this training and
was present and active throughout the course. The MINEVAM church leaders, who came from all the regions of Burundi, slept on mattresses on the floor of the church. Although most of our
courses are typically taught over 2 1/2 days, we spent 4 1/2 days
teaching this time. This allowed us to have extended periods of Q&A and several small group discussion periods.

MINEVAM Bishop Peter Barihzigo and his wife, Maggie

Where the MINEVAM pastors slept

As always, good African teachers taught alongside
me. For this course Frederic Harerimana both taught and acted as my
interpreter, and Rema staff members Pacifique Inamahoro and Francois
Nitunga also taught a number of the sessions. They will also be
following-up with selected church leaders to assist with application of what was learned.

Frederic teaching at MINEVAM

Looking Forward

After spending three days in
New York City visiting our youngest daughter, Julia, I am now home until about
October 24. I will then be leaving for Rwanda, where I plan to meet with
the Rwanda ECLEA committee, and for teaching sessions in Tanzania and
Kenya. That will be the last trip to East Africa for this year. I hope to see many of you while I am home.

Greetings from Uganda! Some excellent things have been happening here in Uganda. Here's the situation.

A new beginning in UgandaOver the last few years when I was with the other organization, we never had a true indigenous committee or organization here
in Uganda as we
have in Kenya and Tanzania. Also, our involvement with the Church of
Uganda (Anglican) had dwindled. I realized the need to try to rectify
both of those situations. I am happy to say that we are on our way to
having an ECLEA-Uganda organization on a better basis and a new start
with the COU.

I met with members of ECLEA's
interdenominational pastor-teacher organizing committee. It was a
worthwhile meeting, as we discussed organization, strategy, and
finances. After that, I met with the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda
(Anglican), Stanley Ntagali. It was wonderful to personally connect with
Archbishop Ntagali after a few years. He connected me with Rev. Titus
Baraka, the Provincial Missions & Evangelism Coordinator for the
COU. We had a short and good meeting. Rev. Baraka has his "finger on the
pulse" of the different dioceses of the COU and is the person who can
open the doors of all the COU dioceses to ECLEA.An excellent stewardship conference in MasindiMoses
Isabirye and Innocent Ucungi Uwachgiu, both members of the ECLEA core
committee, traveled with me to the Masindi-Kitara Diocese of the COU for
a conference on Biblical Stewardship for approximately 30 diocesan
church leaders. The conference was blessed to have Masindi-Kitara bishop
George Kasangaki present throughout. It is rare for a bishop to be
present throughout such a conference. Bishop George's presence signaled
the importance of what we were doing for all of his clergy. The bishop
was not merely present, but was an active participant, including being
the discussion leader for one of the small group discussions.

The
conference itself went well. One participant stated that, before this
conference, whenever she heard the word "stewardship" she thought only
of money. However, "this conference opened my eyes to the far broader
application of stewardship to all areas of life." We are hoping for some
concrete applications. Moses is planning on returning to Masindi-Kitara
in November to follow-up with some of the key participants.The rest of this tripI
leave for Burundi tomorrow. I will be there for two weeks, meeting with
and helping to train the Rema Ministries staff who will be teaching
ECLEA courses in Burundi along with ECLEA's Burundi committee of
pastor-teachers. We will then be conducting another Biblical Stewardship
conference for all of the pastors of the MINEVAM denomination. I am
scheduled to leave Burundi and get back to Appleton on September 18
following a short visit with my daughter Julia in New York City where
she lives.

About Us

Jonathan is the Director of Equipping Church Leaders-East Africa(ECLEA). ECLEA’s mission is to glorify God by training and equipping East African church leaders with sound and relevant biblical doctrine in order to transform lives, the churches, and communities.
Learn more about ECLEA at eclea.net.